Oral And Written Messages
Although we may not understand precisely the process and circumstances that influenced the preparation of the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, it seems that in most cases oral transmission preceded written communication. The illustration we have just used is a good example. Jonah transmitted the divine message orally to the city of Nineveh. At a later date it was written down and included in the prophetic writings. The same thing happened in the case of Moses. When this great prophet and leader was called to act as God’s messenger, he personally transmitted God’s orders to Pharaoh to free His people in the Egyptian ruler’s palace itself. Later they were recorded in the narrative of the Exodus. When Jehovah invited His servant to ascend Mt. Sinai to receive the laws and counsel for the people, all the instructions, except for the Ten Commandments, were first shared orally with the people, then later in written form. The biblical record states that “When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws ... Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said ... Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people” (Exodus 24:3, 4, 7).VOTS 68.2
God’s reason for requiring His servants to write the messages is also recorded in the prophetic writings:VOTS 68.3
So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them: ‘At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing... so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God’ (Deuteronomy 31:9-13).VOTS 69.1
Future generations should hear the divine counsel, without waiting for a repetition of the powerful and supernatural manifestations that accompanied the initial communication on Mt. Sinai. The written counsel fulfilled the function of conveying the will of God to the people in general and to individuals in particular. The written message was just as much the message of God as was His initial oral communication.VOTS 69.2
Human beings, however, are prone to give less importance to a written message than to a dynamic manifestation of divine presence. With the passage of time, the written message—the book of the law—lost its importance for both leaders and followers. Eventually it was lost, and no one knew what happened to it. The discovery of the book of the law in Josiah’s time produced a major revival and reformation. This event demonstrated that written communication, when accorded its rightful place by faithful leaders and accepted by those willing to recognize their errors, produces the same results as a direct manifestation of the divine presence, or the personal intervention of a prophet.VOTS 69.3
However, when the leaders, or the people, are not willing to listen to divine correction, God’s message will be rejected, whether transmitted personally by the prophet or through written communication. During the time of Jehoiakim, the wicked son of the faithful king Josiah who had produced the great revival, the prophet Jeremiah communicated God’s messages until he was prohibited from speaking. When that happened, God ordered him to write the reprimands in a scroll and read them before the people. Using the services of a scribe, Jeremiah obeyed the order, but the wicked king burned the book. Even a second roll containing the divine counsel was rejected. VOTS 70.1